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For the English, having the Third Test of a
series at The Oval is a strange thing. Traditionally, the ground hosts the last
match of any series. Instead, purely by chance, it is instead hosting what is
probably the last meaningful game of the series instead.
Of course, with events of 2006 still fresh
in most memories, no game between England and Pakistan at The Oval can ever be
entirely meaningless, but even so the real interest in this game lies in how
well Pakistan can rebuild after the disasters of the first two games rather
than the overall outcome.
Things have not, of course, started well
for Pakistan, with their star of the Edgbaston game, Zulqarnain Haider, ruled
out with a broken little finger. This may be no bad thing. Although he scored
runs in Pakistan's second innings, he did nothing in the rest of the game to
suggest that he was any better than the man he deposed, Kamran Akmal, and Akmal
at least has experience of keeping wicket in what are likely to be very
different conditions to those in Birmingham.
Oval pitches this year have been pretty
good for batting on. England's bowlers are unlikely to get the extravagant
swing and movement which they had in the first two games. In addition, they
will not be bowling on the dustbowl that they had for the final Ashes game last
year. This will demand far greater application than they showed in Birmingham,
where Stuart Broad blotted his copybook so badly when things didn't go his way.
Another plus for Pakistan is the almost
certain return of Mohammed Yousuf, and the return of Yasir Hameed in place of
the disappointing Shoaib Malik. Left armer Wahab Riaz makes his debut in place
of the injured Umar Gul.
England, on the other hand, named their
starting eleven three days ago, showing faith in Alistair Cook despite his lack
of runs, and Broad, despite his lack of maturity. You can get 20/1 at Ladbrokes
on Cook being top runscorer and 8/1 on Broad being man of the
match. On the other hand, it is a sign of how much Pakistan will depend upon
Yousuf that only William Hill have him anything other than odds on to make a
fifty in the first innings (6/5)